Tabulating device.



J. E. WRIGHT.

TABULATING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 14. 1918.-

1,296,727. Patented Mar.11,1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

awvewfoz 1. E. WRIGHT.

TABULATING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY 14, 91s.

Patented Mar. 11,1919.

3 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

J. E. WRIGHT.

TABULATING DEVICE.

APPLICATION FILED MAY14.I9I8.

1,296,727. k Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

3 SHEE TS-SHEET 3.

- T. I "IMI" HHP c vwewfoz .cf. M64 11 UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

IOU E. WRIGHT, OF NEW YORK, I. Y.

Tnom'rme mrvrcn.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Application fled'hlay 14, 1918. Serial I0. sum.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Joan E. Wmon'r, a

citizen of the United States, residin at,

In many commerclal systems at the l ent time, it is customary to mark cas as by means of appropriately punched holes therein to indicate certaindata. The number and variety of these systems is legion, but forpurposes of the present case, a single example may be selected by way ofillustration. Let us amume, for example, a manufacturing industry in'which cards are punched at certain points to indicate the order orjobnumber: at another point to, indicate different workmen, at a thirdpoint to indicate the elapsed tlme that a work'- man has been on thatparticular piece of work, and at still another oint to show his wagesearned or the la r cost. Other things may be recorded, but this willserve the present purpose.

Assume now that a large number of these cards accumulates and it isdesired to sort them and tabulate one or more of all the items of agiven kind which the bear. Devices are inuse for sorting out al cardsbearing a certain date, a certain job number or designating a certainworkman, and assuming still for mere pu ose of illustration, that allthe cards relating to a certain job number have been segregated, it maybe desired to tabulate or compute the. total time devoted to the job, orthe total labor cost of the same, or both. This invention provides asimple, efi'ective and very economical device for such purpose.

I may best explain the nature of the improvement' since it Mides' inapparatus, by a more or less detailed'description of the mechanism orits mode of operation, for

' which purpose Inow refer to the accompanying drawindgs: p

Figure 1 is a lagrammatic lllustratlon of a simple embodiment of theinvention.

Fig. 1" is a view of one form of card used in the system.

Fi 2 is a view partly in section and part y in diagram of the cardsorting portion of the apparatus.

Fig. 3 is a diagrammatic view of that part of the device which tabulatesthe items.

Fig. 4 is another or plan view of the same, and I 5 is a big y. developout the invention.

Referring to Fig. 1, this shows a card mechanism for carrying '2 withholes punched therein which by their number and position indicate suchdata as above referred to and certain other holes which are to produceeffects or operations Patented Mar. 11, 1919.

dia ammatic view of a more hereinafter to be described. These cards Asthe perforations pass under these contacts the latter touch the metalroll 5 and close circuits from a grounded battery 7 to one or more offour electromagnets 8, and thence to ground at 12.

Each of the said four magnets when energized attracts and shifts one ofseveral permutation bars 13, which have notches in their upper edge andwhich with bars 14, of whlch there may be, efiectively, fourteen tocorrespond to fourteen of the permutations and combinations which thefour bars 13 are capable of setting up.

Beyond the necessary presence of the elements above described the noveland distinguishing features of the invention are more a matter offunption' than construction, for many means are well known and in commonuse by mean of which the desired results may be obtained, and I shalltherefore complete the description by a statement of what the deviceaccomplishes and how it operates.

Let it be. assumed that the labor cost data of all the cards bearing acertain order or job number are to be computed, then these cards arepassed one by one through the device 3. As the contacts 6 pass overperforations the circuit from battery 7 is closed to perforationsindicating labor cost there is aor bars 14 to normal position andpermits I I row of perforations 16 which set the permutation bars 13 soas to permit, say, the first bar 14 to drop and close circuit contacts17 This circuit is from battery 7, and through a magnet 18 to ground 12,and the energization of said magnet by its attraction for an armature 19shifts the locking bar 15 and unlocks the machine so that the bars 14:will work until they are again locked.

\Vhen, therefore, the rows of perforations indicating figum of laborcost pass under contacts 6, the bars or levers 14, which correspond tothe digits of such figures are successively dropped or depressed and inany suitable and well known way operate the conesponding keys 20 of anadding or tabulating machine of any well known kind suchas the Dalton.By means of proper perforations in a card or otherwise, that permutationmay be set after each grou of labor cost perforations has done its worto. operate that bar 14, which works key 21, and prints the figure, andthen a row of perforations in the car operates, say, the second bar 14from the left that closes the circuit through a magnet 22 that shiftsthe locking bar 15 back to lock the instrument.

At any time either by perforations in a card or otherwise thatcombination may be set that operates a key 23, which will print thetotal of the figures set up and printed by the adding machine. By thismeans all of the labor cost items on the cards belonging to a given jobmay be tabulated, or in the same way all of the elapsed time items maybe tabulated.

Certain accessory details are necessary for practically carrying out theabove operations. For example, it will be observed that when no card ispassing over the roll 5, the

v four contacts close their circuits and thus set the combination whichlocks the machine. Again when an unlocking combination is established bya card, the circuit from battery 7 is closed through a magnet 24 toground 12 that attracts an armature 25, Fig. 2, that shifts a carddelivery chute 26 to the left and throws a hook 27, carried by thepivoted chute, into engagement with a hooked piv oted armature 28. Thismaintains the chute in locked position to deliver all cards from whichdata have been tabulated into the receptacle 29 until the descendingcards have pamed beyond the two contacts 30, whereupon these latter cometogether and close the circuit of a battery 31 that includes a magnet 32that releases the latch or hook 28 and permits the pivoted chute toswing back to the right.

Finally after each operation of a key 20, due to the dropping of a bar14, a slow acting magnet 33, in series with the magnet 8, raises a bar3% and restores the dropped bar the bars 13 to be retracted by springs9.

As I have stated the specific character of the mechanism which 'I employfor the above purposes is not of the essence of the invention. I have,however, indicated in Figs. 2, 3 and 4 the preferred nature of the mostessential parts. In addition to the description given above, no furtherdetailed explanation is necessary, as the corresponding parts describedare marked in all the figures with the same numerals.

For the sake of simplicity I have shown but four contacts and fourpermutation bars, but five Or even more may be used if so desired, andit will be obvious that with such increased number the capabilities ofthe instrument are very greatly increased. Even with four, however theusefulness of the device may be extended b such arrangement as shown inFig. 5. n this figure there are but three levers or bars 14.- used withthe four permutation bars 13. When the four contacts 6 rest on the metalroll 5, or

ass over four perforations, the first of the Ears 14 to the left dropsand this closes the circuit from battery 7 through the magnets 35 which,when energized, push up the switch bars 36 and close the circuits of thefour .magnets 8 to ground at 12. This has the same effect as looking themachines and as the switches are held by friction in the position towhich they may be moved, this locked condition will persist.

Assume, however, that it is desired to tabulate two items on each card,for example the elapsed time on one machine and the labor cost onanother. Then a card will have a row of perforations before the laborcost perforations that sets the combination so as to drop, sa the secondlever 14 from the left. This 0 oses the circuit by a magnet 37 thatshifts the switch lever 36 to a position in which it connects the fourmagnets 8 in series with the four magnets 38 of an adding machine shownat the lower left, so that the labor cost item corresponding to theperforations on the card will be tabulated on that machine.

After this has been done the machine is locked by an appropriate row ofperforations, and by a row of suitable perforations in the cardimmediately preceding the next item or elapsed time, the third bar 14from the left is dropped, the magnet 39 energized and the four ma nets40 of the right hand adding machine t rown in series with the fourmagnets 8.

The card illustrated in Fig. 1 it will be observed is more particularlydesigned fo use in the machine of Fig. 5, but it will be understood thatthe mere matter of rforating for one or another machine is a matter ofchoice. With proper provisim but most of these are well within thelimits of the skill of the expert user to devise. I may mention, forexample, the following: It is never necessary to print except whenlooking the apparatus and conversely, hence the same series or row ofperforations in the card which results in one operation may be utilizedtoefi'ect the other. Thus if four holes simultaneously operate to lockthe device the same combination set up by, them may also operate theprinting key. This and many other capa:bilit1es of the a paratus will beapparent to those skilled in the art.

The various uses to which the invention may be a plied, are suflicientlyapparent, I believe, from the above description, and what I nowtherefore claim as my invention is:

1. An apparatus for tabulating all of the items of a given kindindicated by signlficant perforations in a series of cards, comprising,in combination, a permutation dev1ce containing a series of permutationbars, electrical contacts adapted to pass over the parts of the cardswhich contain the perforations and to thereby set the permutation bars,an adding or tabulating machine for recording the figures correspondingto the set combinations of said bars and means also controlled byperforations in the cards and the combinations set thereby, for lockingor releasing the permutation device whereby the desired perforations orfigures corresponding thereto only will be recorded.

2. An apparatus for tabulating or recording all of the items of a givenkind indicated by significant perforations in a series of cards,comprising in combination an adding or tabulating machine, a permutationdevice containing a series of permutationbars operatively connected withand adapted to operate the respective keys of the adding machineaccording to their adjustment, a series of contacts adapted to pass overthe cards and to operate the permutation device by setting up thereinthe various combinations corresponding to the perforations,

and means for locking and releasin the permutation device by means ofspecia perforations in the cards whereby the figures corresponding tothe perforations which immediately follow the unlocking perforationsonly, will be recorded.

3. The combination with a device -for passing perforated cards under alimited number of electrical contacts to complete circuits by suchcontacts as pass over perforations, of a permutation device adapted tobe set to a number of different conditlons by such contacts dependentupon the number of permutations and combinations possible with thenumber of contacts, adding or tabulating machine operated by thepermutation device to record figures correspondingto the set conditions,and means for looking or unlocking the permutation device controlled byspeclal perforations in the cards and set-conditions of the permutationdevice established thereby.

4. The combination with a device for passing perforated cards under aseries of contacts, of a permutation device adapted to be set todifferent operative conditions by the contacts according to the numberand position of the perforations over which they pass, of a plurality ofpermutation devices and adding or tabulatin machines operated thereby,adapted to be t rown successively into operative relation with thecontacts according to the nature of the items which the perforations inthe cards represent, and means controlled by the contacts for lockingand releasing the several permutation devices for the purpose set forth.

5. The combination with a device for passing perforated cards under aseries of contacts, of a permutation device, a series of electro-magnetsin circuit with the contacts and adapted to set the permutation device,a plurality of other permutation devices containing similar operatingelectro 4 magnets and adding or tabulating machines controlled by theiroperation, whereby the said other permutation devices are adapted to bethrown successively Into series with the magnets of the first orcontrolling permutation device and means under the control of said firstor controlling ermutation device for establishing such re ations and forlocking and releasing the several other permutation devices according toneed.

In testimony whereof I hereunto aflix my signature.

JOHN nwmerrr.

